Sequestration of a food dye (sunset yellow) from wastewater using natural adsorbent: a kinetic, isotherm and interference study.

Cocos nucifera, commonly known as coconut is rich in coir dust (CCD) at its outer surface, which is a very significant agri waste used as biosorbent for wastewater treatment. The current work addresses use of CCD for removal of hazardous Sunset Yellow dye (SY) FCF widely used as coloring agent in food industry, from wastewater. The uptake capacity in batch and column mode is 82 mg/g and 160 mg/g respectively. Characterization study including SEM, FTIR and BET results also supported the adsorption process. The comparative analysis with other natural biosorbents showed best results of biosorption with CCD. The output was better at high pH (10) and lower concentration of dye (5 mg/L). The kinetic study suggested pseudo second order rate revealing both adsorbate-adsorbent interdependency. The presence of covalent bonding or valence forces between the interfaces, suggested chemisorption as the rate limiting mechanism with valence forces, hydrogen bonding and pi-pi stacking being the chief forces responsible in binding of the dye molecules to the surface. The isotherm supported Langmuir model with monolayer and uniform adsorption at the interfaces. The interference test confirmed slight decrease in percent adsorption with interference from chloride and sulfate as dominating ions. The techno-economic feasibility highly recommended in field application of the substitute (net profit value, 1.256 Rs/m3, input cost, 0.052 Rs/m3). The industrial sample analysis with lab to land approach justified sustainability and commercial viability of the present work.

Facile removal of a food dye (sunset yellow, FCF) using Coconut coir dust (CCD).Uptake capacity in batch and column mode is 82 mg/g and 160 mg/g respectively.Chemisorption as the rate limiting mechanism with valence forces, hydrogen bonding and pi-pi stacking being the chief forces.Better uptake efficiency is seen at higher pH (10) and lower concentration (5mg/L).

Patient Satisfaction with the Outpatient Department Services at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Northern India and Root Cause Analysis of the Lowest-Scoring Attribute using Fishbone Diagram.

BACKGROUND: Assessing patients' satisfaction is an easy and cost-effective method of evaluating the outpatient services provided by health-care institutions. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to determine patient satisfaction among patients attending various outpatient departments (OPDs) at a tertiary care hospital and the factors affecting their satisfaction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients attending various OPDs at a tertiary care hospital in Faridabad. Exit face-to-face interviews were conducted for 334 patients above 18 years of age who availed OPD services followed by pharmacy services. Information regarding sociodemography, rating of satisfaction with various attributes of OPD services on a 5-point Likert scale, and reasons for dissatisfaction was collected. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. Root cause analysis for the lowest-scoring attribute was done using fishbone diagram. RESULTS: About 64% of the patients were satisfied with the OPD services. "Attitude and communication of doctors" was the prime contributor to patient satisfaction. "Promptness at medicine distribution counter" was the attribute that scored lowest followed by "waiting time at the registration counter." The mean waiting time for registration was 38.2 min, for consultation with doctor 41.3 min, for collection of samples 49.6 min, and for drug dispensing 61 min. CONCLUSION: The issues related to pharmacy services need to be promptly acknowledged and addressed.

Unmet need for family planning services among young married women (15-24 years) living in urban slums of India.

BACKGROUND: NFHS-4 stated high unmet need for family planning (FP) among married women in Uttar Pradesh. Unmet need is highest among age groups: 15-19 and 20-24 years. Currently few data is available about unmet need for FP among vulnerable section of the community, i.e.15-24 year's age group living in the urban slums. Therefore this study was conducted to assess the unmet need for FP services and its determinants among this under-privileged and under-served section of society residing in urban slums of Uttar Pradesh, India. METHODS: Cross sectional study was conducted in the slums of Lucknow, India. One Urban-Primary Health Centre (U-PHC) was randomly selected from each of the eight Municipal Corporation zones in Lucknow and two notified slums were randomly selected from each U-PHC. All the households in the selected slums were visited for interviewing 33 young married women (YMW) in each slum, with a pre-structured and pre tested questionnaire, to achieve the sample size of 535. Analysis of the data was done using logistic regression. RESULTS: The unmet need for family planning services among YMW was 55.3%. About 40.9% of the unmet need was for spacing methods and 14.4% for limiting methods. Important reasons cited for unmet need for family planning services were negligent attitude of the women towards family planning, opposition by husband or others, embarrassment / hesitation / shyness for contraceptive use, poor knowledge of the FP method or availability of family planning services. Among method related reasons health concerns and fear of side effects were frequently cited reasons. On multiple logistic regression: age, educational status, duration of marriage, number of pregnancies, knowledge of contraceptive methods, opposition to contraceptive use and contact with Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) showed independently significant association with unmet need for family planning services. CONCLUSIONS: Unmet need for family planning services is very high among the YMW of urban slums. The findings stress that program managers should take into cognizance these determinants of high level of unmet need for family planning among YMW and make intense efforts for addressing these issues in a holistic manner.

Correction to: Unmet need for family planning services among young married women (15-24 years) living in urban slums of India.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Attributes of hypertension among industrial workers in Northern India - An alarming signal.

Context: There has been an increasing prevalence of hypertension (HTN) affecting all populations of the world including the special occupational groups and industries workers. Aims: To estimate the prevalence of hypertension and to determine the associated factors among industrial workers in the Haryana state of India. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 323 industrial workers of Faridabad, Haryana. Materials and Methods: A semi-structured and validated questionnaire was used to collect information regarding sociodemographic characteristics of the workers, their personal habits, and occupational history. The investigator also recorded the height, weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, and lipid profile of the workers. Statistical Analysis Used: Analysis of the data was done using SPSS Vs 21. Results: The prevalence of hypertension among industrial workers was 48.6%. Age of the worker, presence of smoking or alcohol consumption, having a longer duration of employment, and having deranged total cholesterol/TG/LDL-C levels, diabetes, or obesity were found to be independently associated with hypertension. Conclusion: Screening is required for early detection and prevention of complications. Lifestyle modification is of utmost importance. Employers should implement guidelines issued by the government to protect the health of the productive population.

Geothermal energy integrated multi-effect evaporator (MEE) and multi-effect distillation (MED)-based desalination systems: an ecofriendly and sustainable solutions.

Desalination is a tried-and-true method for obtaining clean water from the ocean's brackish waters and recycling and reusing water. It requires a fair amount of energy, so it is necessary to create sustainable energy systems to lessen energy use and environmental impact. For thermal desalination procedures, thermal sources can be great heat sources. This paper's research focuses on thermoeconomically optimized multi-effect distillation and geothermal desalination systems. Collecting hot water from subsurface reservoirs is a well-established method of generating electricity through geothermal sources. Low-temperature geothermal sources, which have a temperature of less than 130 °C, can be utilized for thermal desalination systems, for example, multi-effect distillation (MED). Geothermal desalination is affordable, and it is possible to produce power simultaneously. Because it only uses clean, renewable energy and produces no greenhouse gasses or other pollutants, it is also safe for the environment. The viability of any geothermal desalination plant will be influenced by the location of the geothermal resource, feed water supply, cooling water source, water market, and concentrate disposal site. Geothermal energy can directly supply heat for a thermal desalination system or indirectly give electrical power to reverse the osmosis (RO) membrane-based desalination plant.

A comprehensive and systematic study on the techniques used for augmenting the performance of a solar still distillate yield.

One of the biggest problems the globe is currently experiencing is the availability of safe freshwater for drinking, especially in rural and dry regions. Drinking fresh water is among the basic requirements for surviving all life on Earth, along with food and energy. Rapid economic growth and poverty increase the demand for clean water. There are numerous approaches to getting clean water, and a current popular method is the solar distillation of brine water. Solar distillation converts brine water into fresh, usable water using solar radiation. It is a cheap, non-polluting, and greenhouse method. Various methods are used to enhance the distillate output, for instance, using nanoparticles, adding external devices, changing the design, and coupling the solar still. This paper reviews various research work and articles on different approaches used to enrich the distillate yield of solar still, increasing its efficiency and thermal energy, and decreasing the cost of desalination of brine water. Lastly, it contains challenges and the future scope.

Heterogeneous patterns of COVID-19 transmission in an Urban set up - sero-epidemiological survey data from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh (a central Indian city).

In the wake of rising number of SARS-CoV-2 cases, the Government of India had placed mass-quarantine measures, termed as "lockdown" measures from end-March 2020. The subsequent phase-wise relaxation from July 2020 led to a surge in the number of cases. This necessitated an understanding of the true burden of SARS-CoV-2 in the community. Consequently, a sero-epidemiological survey was carried out in the central Indian city of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. This article details the processes of data acquisition, compilation, handling, and information derivation from the survey. Information on socio-demographic and serological variables were collected from 4,883 participants using a multi-stage stratified random sampling method. Appropriate weightage was calculated for each participant as sampling fraction derived from Primary Sampling Unit (PSU), Secondary Sampling Unit (SSU) and Tertiary Sampling Unit (TSU). The weightage was then applied to the data to adjust the findings at population level. The comprehensive and robust methodology employed here may act as a model for similar future endeavours. At the same time, the dataset can also be relevant for researchers in fields such as data science, epidemiology, virology and earth modelling.

How Healthy Is State Mental Health System in Madhya Pradesh, India? An Assessment of Today to Plan for a Better Tomorrow.

BACKGROUND: Mental illness affects over one-third of the Indian population, and only a little is known about the exact situation of health systems in Madhya Pradesh, India. Therefore, the present research work provides an assessment of state mental health systems in Madhya Pradesh. METHODS: The present cross-sectional study was conducted as a part of National Mental Health Survey 2015-16 in 48 districts of Madhya Pradesh, to provide an overview of the status of mental health systems. Secondary data was also retrieved from the state office so as to present the situational analysis in a more comprehensive and inferential way. The proforma for the study was developed based on the experience gained from studies conducted earlier with World Health Organization's Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS) and with WHO's Mental Health Atlas as the base for thematic analysis. RESULTS: Out of 51 districts, 13.7% of the districts of the state have been covered under District Mental Health Program (DMHP) in 2015-16. Around 11.8% of district/general hospitals were involved in providing mental health services. The availability of psychiatrist was 0.05 per Lakh population. Around 0.2% of the total health budget was allocated by the state for the last financial year for mental health. The overall average score of Madhya Pradesh in the assessment of qualitative indicators was 31 out of 100 in the year 2015-16. CONCLUSION: There is huge scope and an urgent need to increase mental healthcare facilities (with upgradation of existing one) along the availability of mental healthcare staff.

A study of quality of care of sterilization services in Madhya Pradesh.

BACKGROUND: In a country with a high demand for contraception such as India, one of the most common methods is surgical sterilization, which is delivered by two approaches namely the camp approach and the fixed day static approach. The quality of services for sterilization in India for both the approaches has remained questionable. OBJECTIVES: This paper seeks to determine the quality of sterilization services at fixed day static centers of Madhya Pradesh. METHODS: It was a descriptive observational study done between September 2017-December 2017 in 10 districts of Madhya Pradesh. One District Hospital and 2 Community Health Centers were randomly chosen from each district. The study was carried out using a prestructured, pretested, and prevalidated tool which used the Ona Platform. RESULTS: Two of the facilities conducted more than 30 operations on the day of the visit. In only 18.3% of the cases was the patient informed about all contraception options. The duration between the start of surgery and the signing of consent was less than 2 h in 42% of the patients. The surgical protocol for proper surgical wear was not followed in most cases. CONCLUSION: The quality of care of sterilization services was found to be substandard in the fixed day static centers. The guidelines for the sterilization services were not being followed, and follow up of the patients was also neglected. Better training of the staff with strict and timely supervision is required for the better quality provision at the fixed day static centers.

Determinants of behavioural and biological risk factors for cardiovascular diseases from state level STEPS survey (2017-19) in Madhya Pradesh.

BACKGROUND: National and statewide assessment of cardiovascular risk factors needs to be conducted periodically in order to inform public health policy and prioritise allocation of funds, especially in LMICs. Although there have been studies from India which have explored the determinants of cardiovascular risk factors, they have mostly been from high epidemiological transition states. The present study assessed the determinants of cardiovascular (CVD) risk factors in a low epidemiological transition state (Madhya Pradesh) using the WHO STEPwise approach to surveillance (STEPS). METHODS: A total of 5,680 persons aged 18-69 years were selected from the state of Madhya Pradesh through multi-stage cluster random sampling. Key CVD risk factors we sought to evaluate were from behavioural (tobacco, alcohol, physical activity, diet) and biological domains (overweight or obese, Hypertension, Diabetes, and Raised serum cholesterol). Key socio-demographic factors of interest were the caste and tribe groups, and rural vs urban location, in addition to known influencers of CVD risk such as age, gender and education level. RESULTS: Those belonging to the scheduled tribes were more at risk of consuming tobacco (OR 2.13 (95% CI [1.52-2.98]), and a diet with less than five servings of fruits and vegetables (OR 2.78 (95% CI [1.06-7.24]), but had had the least risk of physical inactivity (OR 0.31 (95% CI [0.02-0.54]). Residence in a rural area also reduced the odds of physical inactivity (OR 0.65 (95% CI [0.46-0.92])). Lack of formal education was a risk factor for both tobacco consumption and alcohol intake (OR 1.40 (95% CI [1.08-1.82]) for tobacco use; 1.68 (95% CI [1.14-2.49]) for alcohol intake). Those belonging to schedules tribes had much lower risk of being obese (OR 0.25; 95% CI [0.17-0.37]), but were at similar risk of all other clinical CVD risk factors as compared to other caste groups. CONCLUSION: In the current study we explored socio-demographic determinants of behavioural and biological CVD risks, and found that in Madhya Pradesh, belonging to a scheduled tribe or living in a rural location, protects against being physically inactive or being overweight or obese. Increasing age confers a greater CVD-risk in all domains. Being a male, and lack of formal education confers a greater risk for behavioural domains, but not for most clinical risk domains. Future efforts at curbing CVDs should be therefore two pronged -a population-based strategy targeting biological risk factors, and a more focussed approach directed at those displaying risky behaviour.

Descriptive profile of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases using WHO STEP wise approach in Madhya Pradesh.

BACKGROUND: Periodic information on risk factor distribution is critical for public health response for reduction in non-communicable disease (NCDs). For this purpose, the WHO has developed STEPs wise approach. State representative population-based STEPS survey was last conducted in 2007-08 in seven states of In India. Since then no such work has been reported from low ETL states. This survey was carried out to assess the prevalence of risk factors associated with NCDs and the prevalence of NCDs in the low ETL state of Madhya Pradesh using the WHO STEPs approach. METHODS: A total of 5680 persons aged 18-69 years were selected from the state of Madhya Pradesh using multi-stage cluster random sampling. Using the WHO STEPs approach, details were collected on demographics, STEP 1 variables (tobacco consumption, alcohol consumption, physical activity, diet), STEP 2 variables (weight, height, waist circumference, blood pressure) and STEP 3 variables (fasting blood glucose, blood cholesterol). RESULTS: We found that 9.4% individuals smoked tobacco, 15.3% were overweight/obese, 22.3% had hypertension, and 6.8% have diabetes mellitus. As compared to women, men were less likely to be overweight or obese, but more likely to smoke tobacco, and have diabetes mellitus. Hypertension was also more common in men. Overall, about a fourth of all adults had three or more risk factors for cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSION: The survey shows that a large section of the population from Madhya Pradesh is either suffering from NCDs or have risk factors which predispose them to acquire NCDs. This state representative survey provides benchmarking information for behavioural and biological risk factor distribution for recently scaled up National Programme for the Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Stroke (NPCDCS).

A study of the status of provision of sterilisation services in India.

CONTEXT: India has the second-largest population in the world with a significant growth rate that adversely affects the quality of life (QoL). Sterilisation is one of the main methods of female contraception in the country. Meeting the sterilisation services' numerical demand and quality requirements have remained a challenge. AIMS: This study was done to assess the infrastructural component of the sterilisation services provided by the static centres. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a descriptive cross-sectional facility-based study conducted from September to December 2017. It involved 30 facilities (10 district hospitals and 20 community health centres [CHCs]) from 10 divisions of the state of Madhya Pradesh. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The data were collected using a pre-tested and pre-structured questionnaire, which was uploaded on the Ona platform. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 21. RESULTS: Only 11 of the 30 facilities had proper waiting areas for the patients. Approximately, only 63% of the facilities had proper toilets, 50% had display of the contraceptives, and 43% had a complaint/suggestion box. In terms of the availability of equipment, only 43% of the facilities had a table with the Trendelenburg facility. CONCLUSIONS: The main limitations in the infrastructure of the facilities were general cleanliness; availability of proper waiting and post-operative areas; and the lack of equipment, record keeping, and supervision. To accomplish the provision of quality sterilisation services, policy-makers and programme managers need to pay attention to and address these limitations.

Mental Health Issues in Madhya Pradesh: Insights from National Mental Health Survey of India 2016.

BACKGROUND: About 14% of the global mental health burden is contributed by India. However, there exists a disparity in mental health patterns, utilization, and prioritization among various Indian states. The state of Madhya Pradesh is a low performer among Indian states, ranking lower than the national average on the Human Development Index, Hunger Index, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The state also performes poorly on other health-related indicators. Objectives of Study: To estimate the prevalence and patterns of mental illnesses in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study used the multistage, stratified, random cluster sampling technique, with selection probability proportionate to size at each stage. A total of 3240 individuals 18 years and older were interviewed. The mixed-method study that was employed had both quantitative and qualitative components. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview along with 10 other instruments were used. RESULTS: The overall weighted prevalence for any mental illness was 13.9%, with 16.7% over the lifetime. The treatment gap for all of the mental health problems is very high (91%), along with high suicidal risk and substance use in the state. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence of the huge burden of mental, behavioral, and substance use disorders as well as the treatment gap in Madhya Pradesh. This information is crucial for developing an effective prevention and control strategy. The high treatment gap in the state calls for coordinated efforts from all stakeholders, including policy makers, political leaders, health care professionals, and the society at large to give mental health care its due priority. These findings also highlight the need for multi-pronged interventions rooted in health policy directed at reducing the treatment gap in the short term and disease burden in the long run.